Global Institute of Organizational Coaching

Global Coaching Certification

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Emotional Triggers

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“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” – Viktor E. Frankl

On any given day, you might experience a variety of emotions often which are connected to specific events or people.  When the emotions arouse an intense negative reaction or trigger, we may feel our mood change quickly.  Being able to name the trigger and then educating yourself about the potential reasonable responses to it is the first step navigating unpleasant situations and interactions.

Triggers

David Richo in “Triggers: How We can Stop Reacting and Start Healing” defines a trigger as “any word, person, event or experience that touches off an immediate emotional reaction”.  Emotions being felt run the gamut of a range of emotions which include anger, fear, panic, humiliation and even shame.  The author shares that “trigger” is an appropriate term for what is happening as the “gun” is in the hands of someone else.  The person, situation or thought is actually pulling the trigger.  Our reactions to triggers can last a short moment or lapse into minutes or hours.  The duration is determined by how often we have experienced the trigger and our typical reaction to it.  Reactions are based upon the beliefs, assumptions, projections, and the meaning we assign to the trigger.  For example, a direct report may become angry when not acknowledged as his/her boss moves through the office in the morning.  The interpretation is that “my boss doesn’t care about me”.  A turn-around we use in our coaching curriculum is found in the work of Byron Katie.  It is four sentences “Is it true; is it really true; how do you feel when you think that way; how would you feel if you didn’t think that way?” This reframe can stimulate thinking about other ways to react to what is happening.

Hooks

A second author, Susan David in “Emotional Agility” calls these triggers “hooks”.  She shares that our four biggest hooks are blaming our thoughts for action or inaction, incessant chatter in our heads, old outgrown ideas, and beliefs about ourselves and hanging on too long to believing we are right.   These four hooks circulate through our minds like a movie inside our heads.  The movies can translate into narratives that are fueled by self-defeating thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.  When we experience the same story continually, we start to believe it without questioning ourselves about its truth.  Then when we experience the story in real life, BOOM, the emotions are off to the races.  David believes that emotions making the connection to past experiences can confuse the mind with regards to what is happening in real time.

Emotional Inflammation

Taking a similar approach to triggers, Lise Van Susteren and Stacey Colino in “Emotional Inflammation” share that emotional triggers have commonality in the feelings they bring about with regards to discomfort and a rapid acceleration of emotions.  The challenge becomes that just thinking about a stress event can set off the physiological response we call fight, flight, or freeze. This response can lead to a state of hyperarousal creating health impacts that affect the entire person-physically, mentally, and emotionally- as stress hormones circulate throughout the body.  The authors add that triggers can combine to fuel inflammation without our awareness of what is happening.  Bringing triggers to full conscious awareness allows for a number of positive ways to heal triggers.

Healing Triggers

Susteren and Colina offer strategies that can help in expressing and regulating emotional responses.  First, alter your vocabulary in describing the situation and emotion.  They also invite you to revisit your history by asking a few questions such as:  What just happened? Why am I suddenly feeling what I am feeling? What was I doing or thinking about before I began to feel this way?  Now explore the connection to what has happened in the past.  What are the similarities of experiences and reactions to previous encounters? The authors add that we must be detectives in surfacing what is happening as many individuals tend to hide painful triggers from themselves.

Similarly, Marc Brackett in “Permission to Feel”  guides us to be “emotion scientists”. As the name suggests, we should be willing to experiment and learn everything we can about emotions. Most importantly, this involves being open-minded.  We don’t need to judge whether an emotion is good or bad, right, or wrong, productive, or non-productive. Once we recognize that we are experiencing an emotion, the next step is to understand where it is coming from.  Learning about our emotions can lead to more effective interactions with others and triggering situations, albeit slowly.

This work happens slowly because our brains scan for what’s wrong instead of what’s working due to evolution.  Dr. Rick Hanson: The Neuroscience of Lasting Happiness shares that in the past if we were not vigilant about what could be a danger, the danger could end our lives.  While that is not the case in our present lives, we still tend to examine situations from a negative mindset which can set off emotional triggers.  Once the emotional triggers have been activated the amygdala goes into action to produce the flight, fight, or freeze phenomenon.  None of these three responses take us into successfully navigating emotional situations.  In fact, once the amygdala begins secreting the hormones needed to respond, the thought center of our brain begins to shrink making it difficult to give a rational reaction.  Thus, the work we do to heal takes place over time through focused effort.

90 Second Rule

This blog would be remiss if it did not share Jill Bolte Taylor’s  work in controlling triggers. She believes that the first 90 seconds after an upsetting event are crucial for choosing to engage the trigger or not.  In her videos, she shares that it takes only 90 seconds for the chemical release of stress hormones from the trigger to clear our bodies.  That sounds like a short time for those of you who may feel it for a longer period.  The secret is to examine what you are experiencing and move your thoughts to something else more positive.  If you keep thinking about the experience, your body will keep secreting those hormones and lengthen your experience of those chemicals.

Many of us have triggers that pull us out of our comfort zones. They cause us to feel strong emotions and before we know it we are reacting to the triggers. Being able to anticipate our emotions allows us to express and regulate them more effectively.  Developing emotional agility including the ability to recognize, understand, label, express and regulate negative emotional patterns results in strengthening our emotional intelligence muscle and creates more successful relationships with self and others.

Building a Successful Coaching Culture

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Building Coaching Cultures

In November, the Global IOC blog highlighted the need for leaders to develop coaching skills.  Interestingly, in the work the Global IOC does with leaders, most leaders who begin the coach development programs share that they are already coaching.  Yes they are!  And yet, there are opportunities to strengthen innate coaching skills in formal coach development programs.  For example, our Essential Leadership Coaching Skills program focuses on differentiating between positive and negative emotional attractors. Did you know that when someone hears a negative comment or interprets it as negative, his or her brain goes into flight or flight?  This is huge when coaching direct reports.  Participants also learn the difference between being a critical thinking partner and being a director of others’ behavior.  The following discussion will focus on how to expand the coaching practices beyond an individual leader into the entire organization.

What Organizations Will Need in 2023

Our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world will continue in 2023.  Additionally, many of the issues that troubled organizations will continue to impact them.  LinkedIn shared a few workplace trends that they see coming for 2023. They include; retention of key talent, employee wellness including mental health initiatives, company culture enhancements including diversity, equity and inclusion programs and hybrid work.  Creating coaching cultures can help to address these continuing and emerging trends.  Coaching cultures provide adaptability with pace of change, actions for closing knowing-doing gaps, delivering targeted individual just-in-time development, increasing the range, effectiveness and flexibility of leadership behaviors, and acceleration of performance.

Why focus on a coaching culture?

Investing in a coaching culture has a direct impact on the organization’s bottom line. In research conducted by the Association for Coaching, the quantitative benefits of coaching as identified by the buyer were increased productivity, reduced costs in managing direct reports and other associated costs of management.  The qualitative benefits exceeded the hard costs resulting in better people management skills, higher motivation, enhanced client relationship skills, and stronger alignment with organizational mission and objectives.

In today’s environment retaining top performing employees is critical to success.  A Fortune 100 company found that losing just one key player can result in a $250,000-$500,000 loss for the firm depending on the role.  Beyond key talent retention, they found that investing in a coaching culture resulted in higher annual revenues (when compared to peer groups), continued improvement of engagement scores, increased in customer enthusiasm metrics, and improvement in key performance indicators year over year.  The Sales Executive Council suggests that 87% of training is lost within a month without on-the-job reinforcement.  This number can also be found in a few research studies.  When coaching becomes part of a culture, the reinforcement of learning leads to sustainment of expected behaviors.

What differentiates a coaching culture from coach training? 

Coach training programs can only go so far in aligning organizational strategies with behaviors and closing knowing-doing gaps.  As a result, many organizations are investing in building coaching cultures in order to create long term sustainment of new behaviors.  Coaching cultures are not simply a stated organizational goal rather they are built to serve the core strategy of the organization.  Coaching cultures bring together the elements of how managers, leaders, associates and other stakeholders engage one another.  In other words, coaching occurs at every level, is used with individuals and teams to advance initiatives and is built into strategy documents.  Coaching cultures are led by senior level managers who integrate and cascade the changes throughout their own teams.   Coaching is built foundationally on consistent training along with tactics, goals and measures to ensure consistency broadly across the organization.  In coaching cultures, coaching is integrated seamlessly with other people management processes.  Finally, successful coaching cultures build recognition and reward programs into the culture.

Integral to building any coaching culture is a coach development program that provides leaders with the most effective way to develop teams, drive performance, and retain key talent.  As leaders develop in their own coaching success, their coaching behaviors and insights lead to more motivated people, increased job satisfaction, higher levels of engagement and a strengthening of bonds between individuals, teams and the organization.

Building a Culture

Megginson and Clutterbuck in “Making Coaching Work: Creating a Coaching Culture”  shares five components that must be built into a coaching culture.  First, link coaching to business drivers by ensuring that coaching becomes part of strategy, processes, and high performance.  Second, support for coaching is driven by both the leader and direct report in a strong relationship of development.  Third, leaders at all levels of the organization are provided with coach development from core skill to advanced skill training along with continuing education and oversight for those skills.  There is a movement from directive coaching to coach as thinking partner as leaders develop capabilities rather than basic competencies.  Fourth, recognition and reward for coaching needs to be built into performance plans and annual bonuses.  Finally, a systemic approach to coaching emerges in which the culture becomes embedded and coaching becomes the norm throughout the entire organization.

One of the challenges to building a coaching culture is where to locate the program within the organization.  In most organizations, it resides with the Human Resources team while in others it might be led by the Training and Development team or a leader who champions the culture.  In any case, Hawkins adds a few suggestions to that of Megginson and Clutterbuck.  A sponsor for the coaching culture must be invested in seeing the development from the beginning stages until the culture becomes embedded or the norm.  Second, the organization must develop a vision of an aspirational culture while measuring current culture.  It is critical to know the starting point along with the vision for the future.  Third, Hawkins recommends that outside coaches assist the stakeholders and senior leaders as they collaborate to guide the structure of the coaching culture.  The external coaches will also develop the internal coaching programs necessary for sustainment of the culture.  Building a culture takes time, stakeholder sponsorship, and support of leaders at all levels in the organization.

If you are interested in learning more about building a coaching culture in your organization, Global IOC has an upcoming webinar on January 11th at 11 AM EST.  To join this webinar, click on this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82601361760?pwd=dDhnQlZxcVF3STY3OEEvUERJcUFOUT09

Use of Assessments in Coaching

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Assessments in Your Toolbox

 

Assessments are an essential resource for the coaching toolbox.  They provide us with a starting point for helping clients develop a deeper understanding of self and sometimes others.  Assessments provide coaches with baseline information about the client and can deliver various details about personality, leadership styles, interpersonal communication style, strengths, and stage of development.  There are numerous choices available for the coach to use in practice.  The most important factor is that the coach develops expertise in the use and application of the assessment.  The remainder of this article will focus on formal assessments available for the coach practitioner.

Myers-Briggs

The MBTI assessment helps clients identify natural preferences in four areas of personality.  The extroversion/introversion dyad is determined by how the client directs and receives energy.  A focus on the outside world, interacting with people and taking action is considered extroverted while focusing on the inner world and reflecting on ideas, memories, and experiences would be considered introverted.  The process for taking in information determines the sensing/intuitive dyad.  Perception using the five senses would be sensing while seeing the big picture and looking for relationships and patterns is intuitive.  The thinking/feeling dyad is determined by how a person decides and arrives at conclusions.

Logically analyzing the situation is considered thinking while considering what’s important to the people involved is considered feeling.  The final dyad is perceiving/judgmental.  Approaching the outside world in a planned, orderly way fits the judgment domain while a more flexible, spontaneous way is considered perceiving.  Once the client has completed the MBTI, the natural preferences of the individual are sorted into 16 distinct personality types.  In understanding natural preferences, clients can use the information to strengthen and enhance both personal and professional relationships as well as create developmental plans for growth.

DISC-Values

The DISC assessment is a behavioral assessment tool which identifies four types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.  In describing the differences between the behavioral types, the tool emphasizes the uniqueness of each type and while expanding upon what is needed and expected by the behavioral type.  Communication between and among types improves when an understanding of others based upon their type is achieved.  It is through understanding ways to adapt to different behavioral types that tension is reduced and increased cooperation and trust in relationships can be built.  The results from the values assessment helps individuals better understand their value hierarchy and belief systems. The values that are measured are aesthetic, economic, individualistic, political, altruistic, regulatory, and theoretical.  Values are what drives an individual and are expressed through the personality.  During the debrief, the coach connects what is valued to how it is expressed.  When the DISC assessment is combined with the Values assessment, a full spectrum of behaviors and values can be introduced to a client for a deeper understanding of self and opportunities for development.

Strength-Finders

A third assessment that Global IOC often uses with corporate clients is Strengths Finders.  This assessment was developed from Gallups’s 40-year study on human strengths which brought rigor and robustness to the assessment.  The Gallup Organization research suggests that the most effective people are those who understand their strengths and behaviors. It is through this understanding that individuals can develop strategies to meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.  Strengths Finders focuses on understanding of natural talents that lead to insight into the core reasons behind consistent successes.  The Strengths Finders assessment provides the client with the five highest rated strengths out of 34 so that development can be inclusive of the strengths.  Gallup found that individuals who know their talents and have the opportunity to use them at work are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs.  Gallup has also found that individuals who know their talents and have the opportunity to use them at work are three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.

Hogan

The Hogan assessment suite evaluates personality from both the inside-actor’s view and outside-observer’s view.  The Hogan assessment suite is a compilation of three instruments that are based upon consistent observations across a wide range of jobs, individuals, and industries.  The suite can help organizations and individuals evaluate strengths and weaknesses, identify high potential employees and leadership candidates, uncover motivations and values, and discover derailers to prevent negative impacts of future performance.  The three suites include; Hogan Personality Inventory which describes how we relate to others when we are at our best, the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) measures 11 derailing tendencies that can impede career success and interpersonal effectiveness and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) describes personality from the inside – the core goals, values, drivers, and interests that determine what we desire and strive to attain.

Enneagram

The Enneagram assessment measures nine personality types defined by a particular core belief about how the world works. This core belief drives a client’s deepest motivations and fears — and fundamentally shapes a person’s worldview and the perspective through which they see the world and the people around them.  It is through understanding specific Enneagram types, that a client can explore how the type impacts perceptions of the world and open up to respond to situations and challenges differently.  Personality assessments help clients understand not only their own behavior but the behavior of others which can reduce or eliminate conflict.  Similar to DISC, the Enneagram also shows how clients react to stress and how they might adapt in future stressful situation.  The Enneagram is widely used in corporate environments.  In business contexts it is generally used to gain insights into workplace interpersonal dynamics, improve communication and self and team development activities.

Global IOC is a strong proponent of the use of assessments in coaching as it provides both the coach and client with a starting point for reflection then action.  However, the use of assessments needs to match the situation and coaches need to develop expertise with assessments along with creating an understanding with the client about purpose and expectations for use.  Also, for Global IOC the assessments have to pass the reliability and validity measures in order to be used.  The key question is “will it simply be discussed and placed on a shelf or will the coach weave in the information in future development opportunities”?

 

Global IOC will be hosting a webinar on April 6 to discuss at a deeper level the assessments covered in this blog.  Zoom call https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83239074707

Another Year Over, Celebrate Your Successes

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Celebrating successes

 

Hi Everyone!

One of my favorite December songs is “Happy Xmas” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  The lyrics start with

“So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun”

Every year when I hear this song, I begin to think about what “I have done” and whether I accomplished the most important things in terms of what I set out to do.  There is not a better time for reflection then, at the end of something and the beginning of the new.  I know most of you are thinking-“Is she crazy-doesn’t she realize how busy my schedule is?”  I certainly do as my schedule is also full.  However, if we don’t set aside time for reflection we risk moving into 2022 without a solid evaluation of what’s working in our lives and what is not.  As a result we may be destined to repeat 2022 in the same manner that we moved through 2021.  Jack Canfield  in “The Success Principles” shares that we have to keep score in order to know whether we are creating and reaching goals and part of keeping score is evaluating what we have accomplished.  What does your score sheet look like and does it measure what matters most to you?

Keeping score also allows for the process of reflection.  Reflection is an important component of how adults learn.  We learn from not only from our experiences but also from the interpretations and reinterpretations of those experiences.  When we pause and reflect upon circumstances and then apply a different framework to our circumstances we can create new ways of acting and thinking.  Using the process of reflection and introspection on an on-going basis leads to increased levels of awareness, insight, and self-acceptance.  Many times these moments of reflection can result in epiphanies from which we can chose new thoughts and behaviors. Bob Rotella in “How Champions Think”.

adds that champions self-evaluate and reflect after setting their own standards and do not simply wait for others to provide evaluations in order to move forward into success.  What is your process for reflection and self-evaluation?

The end of the year also brings us to a time for celebration.  How do you celebrate your success?  In a recent meeting with leaders within an organization I work with, leaders were asked how they celebrate.  Many did not have a response.  When we asked “why”, a couple of obstacles were shared.  The first obstacle was there is not enough time.  Celebration requires planning and typically ends up at the bottom of a list.  They also share that they sometimes hold back celebrating until projects are completed and goals are met.  Their thinking was that celebrating too early could lead to a loss of momentum.  There have been numerous articles written about the importance of rewarding ourselves when we are making progress not just at the point of completion and that this celebration actually builds momentum.  John Norcross in “Changeology” shares that early on in reaching milestones, rewards need to be immediate and intense while later on in a more stabilized change effort rewards are more meaningful.  How comfortable are you with celebrating and rewarding your self?  In what ways do you reward progress and celebrate success?

As you prepare for 2022, don’t forget to reflect upon 2021 successes.  One of the best ways to create our future is to leverage what we know about our past successes!  Celebrations can help to rewire our brains so that our focus is on what leads to success rather than what is missing.  Shawn Achor  in “The Happiness Advantage”  relates that this rewiring creates what he calls the positive tetris effect and sets us up for happiness, gratitude and optimism.  As you are making plans and setting goals for 2022, make sure you build in time for rewards and celebrations!

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons and looking forward to an awesome 2022 with you!

Dr. Peggy

Dreaming of Becoming a Coach?

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woman with laptop and coffee

 

Dreaming of Becoming a Coach?  Turn Your Dreams into Reality

Coaching has become increasingly relevant to the success of businesses.  It has also become a key leadership competency; with leaders at all levels who develop coaching skills driving higher levels of performance and revenue.  Adding a coaching designation to the skills you already possess can open up new career opportunities for you.  Is now the time for you to achieve the dream of becoming a coach?, If so, you might want to explore the options available to you at Global IOC.

Why Become a Coach?

A range of factors has contributed to the interest in developing business coaching capabilities. They include a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world, the financial cost of not retaining employees, support for organizational change initiatives and support for development of employees. Coaching, with its emphasis on just-in-time, flexible, customized learning, is seen as a welcome contribution to an individual’s development portfolio.

In addition, the World Economic Forum has identified the 2022 Future Outlook on Work Skills which include innovation, complex problem solving, creativity, leadership, emotional intelligence and analysis and ideation in their list.  The convergence of organizational needs along with talent requirements presents a unique opportunity for business coaches.   Coaches who can demonstrate the value of coaching while delivering upon attraction, development, and retention of key talent, high levels of engagement and performance and reinforcement of learning are in high demand.

Pathways to Becoming a Coach at Global IOC

Global IOC offers three pathways to becoming a certified coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches™ (WABC™).  First, a foundational skill building class to introduce coaching skills at the associate level.  Next, advanced skill building which integrates the core skills with new knowledge and coaching best practices.  For those who have learned the core requirements from another group or in a variety of trainings, there is an assessment only track.  With the assessment only process, you could leverage foundational skills learned to fast-track into an advanced program along with the designation.  Finally, once you have completed the Advanced program you could bring the program to your own organization.

Build Foundational Skills

The Associate Coaching program leading to a Registered  Corporate Coach™ (RCC™) designation provides participants with foundational coaching skills that address current and emerging needs within a business context.  Participants will learn the Global IOC Coaching Model™ developed from the latest research in coaching. They will also learn coaching best practices that lead to more effective connecting, communicating, clarifying, championing and gaining commitment with clients.  The program structure is a blend of virtual highly interactive sessions along with self-paced independent learning.  One to one oversights with master certified faculty deepen and enhance the coaching practice.

Build Advanced Skills

For individuals and corporations who want to take their coaching skills beyond the foundational coaching level, Global IOC offers an Advanced Coaching program leading to a Certified Business Coach (CBC™) designation.  This program provides participants with advanced coaching skills that develop the ability to coach in increasingly complex and challenging situations within a business context.  Participants will learn the Global IOC Coaching Model™ developed from the latest research and best practices in coaching. Curriculum components include the selection and use of assessments in coaching, resources to advance coaching knowledge and practice leading to mastery and acceleration of client success, and a series of development resources to help coaches grow their own coaching business.

Leverage What You Have Already Learned

Two assessment only tracks allow individuals to leverage the knowledge and skills already acquired for either the (RCC™) designation or the (CBC™) designation.  The Assessment Only Associate Business Coach Track is designed for professionals/coaches who have a foundational coaching designation and/or considerable experience with coaching and want the RCC™ designation. Candidates are required to provide evidence of past learning related to developing coaching skills, coaching practice as a business coach, and coaching supervision equivalent to a total of 75 hours.  The Assessment Only Advanced Business Coach Track is for professionals/coaches who have an advanced coaching designation and/or coaching learning and experience commensurate with a total of 300 hours of business coaching practice, coaching competency development, and coaching supervision. Successful applicants will receive the (CBC™) designation.  As both certifications require coaching supervision, Global IOC faculty can provide supervision for candidates who have not engaged in coaching supervision previously.

Bring Coaching to Your Organization

After a candidate has met the requirements for the Associate and Senior Registered Professional Coach programs, he or she is eligible to become faculty with Global IOC and deliver the Associate program to his/her organization.   Attendance at a curriculum immersion session is mandatory.  Candidates will then determine the amount of support needed to deliver the program to the candidate’s organization.  Observation of initial facilitation of the program is required along with submission of attendee logs and annual reports.

The curriculum of the Global IOC Associate Business Coaching program content can be modified to meet the needs of the organization.  The modifications must meet the learning outcomes of the curriculum and be approved by Global IOC prior to delivery.

All graduates who have successfully completed a Global IOC internal coaching program are eligible to receive the RCC™ designation.

For more information on Global IOC coaching programs, please go to www.globalioc.com

Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader

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Leaders in meeting

Although leadership is recognized as a universal phenomenon, it still lacks a common definition and theoretical foundation that can be empirically tested. The good news is that we have shifted from the “hero” or “great man myth” into a view of leadership that is inclusionary, participatory, collaborative and transformative. An organization’s ability to be effective and adapt its environment to the post-pandemic VUCA world requires sustainable, effective leadership that cascades through the organization. Among other things, organizations need leaders for inspiration, enthusiasm, focus, and to strategically guide their vision, mission and culture. Strong leadership is often viewed as one of the most important factors in organizational health and growth yet, many organizations struggle with the development and scaling of leadership behaviors.  This blog focuses on the development of coaching skills to complement leadership behaviors.

In a recent article by the World Economic Forum, a survey suggested that 40% of employees are considering leaving their jobs.  40% of employees are thinking of quitting their jobs, says survey | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) This will create an incredible talent gap for some organizations.  Using coaching skills to develop and better understand the needs, values and drivers of individual behavior of employees might influence the desire to remain with an organization.  Kelly in “The Dream Manager” shares that the destinies of the organization and individual potential are interwoven.   He threads the concept of “best version of self” throughout his message which is inclusive of both the organization best version and individual best version.  This requires that both the individual and organization deeply explore what is valued, the meaning made from those values and alignment of action with the values.

Anderson and Adams also consider exploration of values to be important to leadership behaviors.  In “Scaling Leadership” the authors share that development of others starts with the development of self as leader.  In addressing the VUCA world that has been exacerbated globally by the pandemic, leaders are encouraged to close their own development gaps.  A self-understanding about meaning making, decision making, emotional intelligence and beliefs and assumptions guide the leader in developing skills to address the complexities of leadership.  When this happens for the individual leader, it begins to cascade down through direct reports which then creates the “scale” necessary for coaching and developing leaders at all levels.  The competencies of the high creative leadership behaviors identified by the authors are very much aligned with great coaching.

Boyatzis and McKee in “Resonant Leadership” add another component to “Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader”.  Focusing on the benefits of emotional connection, the authors position the relationship as key to successful coaching which has been proven time and time again in the research.  The resonant coaching leader not only creates resonance with followers but also creates this resonance with self through the process of renewal.  Leaders are so conditioned to “doing” that they often sacrifice “being” and reflection.  Boyatzis and McKee share that developing a renewal process provides increased energy and engages the mind, body, and heart in shifting to positivity and healthier relationships.  Kouzes and Posner while researching and writing about leadership in “Encouraging the Heart” share this thinking with Boyatzis and McKee.  They contend that effective leader coaches are connected with followers as they demonstrate genuine caring for the follower.  Without this caring, the follower may experience his or her leader as simply transactional rather than transformational.

Transformational leadership connects leading and coaching, as it empowers others, is congruent with a core set of values, focuses on continuous development, and inspires a shared vision through translating dreams into reality.  Blanchard, in Morgan’s “Profiles in Coaching” believes that leadership and coaching go “hand-in-hand” and that coaching is a form of leadership requiring leaders to discover their own direction, purpose and mission.  Upon reflection and clarity about direction, purpose and mission, coaching and leadership involve guiding the follower’s focus and action on what is important in life through identification of strategies for accomplishing values and goals.  Blanchard ties this process back into a model for servant leadership by suggesting that through the coaching process, the leadership pyramid turns upside down and the leader becomes the supporter for the self-directed achievement of followers.

Coaches in a meetingSupport is also a component of the coaching thinking partnership which engages the leader and direct report in gaining clarity about goals, holding followers accountable for agreed upon actions and celebrating with followers when goals are met.  These leaders provide opportunities for emergent and meaningful conversations. The leader coach sees himself or herself as a barometer of where the follower is with regards to their own thought processes. Questions are asked to draw out deeper, more thoughtful, meaningful conversations and take the follower into thinking about future possibilities.  Questions such as “what will success look like for this project?” and “what might create challenges for the project?” cause a follower to think both in terms of best-case scenarios while also preparing to overcome challenges.  Chip and Dan Heath in “Decisive” use this exercise as a “pre-parade and post-mortem” discussion.  Interestingly, it is typically easier for followers to brainstorm the challenges than the successes which creates another opportunity for coaching.

The paradox of the leader as coach phenomenon exists in duality in that it is both about the development of self and the development of relationships with others.  Leaders as coaches drive change yet stabilize the team.  They also honor past successes while looking forward to the future.  Finally, leaders as coaches integrate both science and art.  Managing the paradox contributes to its complexity and to the complexity of designing effective leader as coach development programs.   

 

Join us on June 23rd for our next webinar on “Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader” for more on this topic.

Coaching Millennials and Gen Zers: More Questions than Answers

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Team coaching millenials

Last summer many on our faculty attended a conference sponsored by the Association for Coaching and the Institute of Coaching.  One presenter, Charlie Stainforth, gave a presentation on Millennial/Gen Z coaching which included recommendations for ensuring that individuals in these generational age groups could receive coaching.  As a high Altruistic, I was completely engaged in making this happen along with several of the Global IOC faculty.  However, when we began to research the needs, the format, and how best to engage these two groups, more questions surfaced than were answered.

In researching the topic of Millennial/Gen Z coaching, there is very little available in the mainstream media that is not simply a perpetuation of the Strauss-Howe Theory which suggests that historical events are associated with creating generational personas for the entire generation.  The four generations who are currently in the workplace include: Generational Differences in the Workplace [Infographic] (purdueglobal.edu)

  • Baby Boomers—born 1946 to 1964
  • Generation X—born 1965 to 1980
  • Millennials—born 1981 to 2000
  • Generation Z—born 2001 to 2020

Note many of the baby boomers have reached retirement age (66 and some leaving sooner) with the Gen Z just beginning to enter the workplace.  The challenge I have with focusing simply on what the social scientists are suggesting is true for each generation is that it lumps everyone in the generation together.  In the Forbes article “Generational Differences: When They Matter, And When They Don’t,” the authors suggest that management style, team culture and work motivation are important differences between generations while flexibility, making an impact and individual motivations align across cultures.  It is important to focus on commonalities as well as differences as we chart a path for coaching.

A McKinsey study Millennials: Burden, Blessing, or Both? | McKinsey asks the question, “Can you define everyone born between 1980 and 2000 by a handful of generalized characteristics?”  In their researched article, the authors suggest that companies can take actions that lead to “a new workplace dynamic spurred by the high expectations of younger employees but meeting a larger need for more thoughtful relations between all workers and employees.”  Five actions are targeted; building bridges with data, putting communication on steroids, developing cultures of mentorship, creativity in professional growth, and embedding flexible work into the culture.

From a coaching perspective, I see a myriad of organizational opportunities.  First, in creating coaching cultures, it is possible to help managers and leaders shift mindsets about labels for a specific group to focusing on the individuals and the needs of the individuals.  Yes, the individuals belong to a given generation but what else needs to be surfaced in order to coach that individual effectively?  Second, ensure that current and emerging leaders have highly developed communication skills to provide timely feedback and individually crafted development opportunities.  Third, organizations can create mentor relationship that begin when an individual enters the workplace and continues throughout the career of the individuals.  The focus on mentorships have to include training on relationship building, communication skills, and understanding differences and may change when the individual needs a different focus or chooses a different direction.  Finally, creating rotation programs and leadership of temporary projects which are energizing for the Millennial group and potentially solve organizational challenges but create loyalty to the organization.

Now to the individual Millennial coaching client.  (I am leaving out the Gen Zer here as they are just entering the workforce and the organizational ideas shared previously benefit this group.)  Willyerd in her HBR article Millennials Want to Be Coached at Work (hbr.org) shares that Millennials want authenticity, inspiration and feedback which is very similar to what coaches currently provide to clients.  However, some authors are now suggesting that the coach will need to adapt coaching practice to this group of clients based upon personal communication style preferences.  I, however, do not share that belief as I believe that the issue is one of tweaking coaching practice which is done to accommodate all clients.  What we cannot lose sight of as coaches is the empirical research on the importance of the coaching relationship that has been foundational to coaching. We need to avoid building coaching practices that are simply based upon generational theory that lumps individuals into one large group and instead ask the client about their preferences during initial and subsequent conversations with the client.  By this, we may need to integrate different needs for communication into coaching that respects the best of current coaching practices in alignment with what the client needs.  A hybrid of in-person meetings such as Zoom calls with in-between feedback via text or email could be a format for coaching.  Until we have empirically tested theories about practice, we need to be researchers in our own coaching practices and ensure that information is brought back into theory.

We do indeed have more questions than answers.  What do the Millennials and Gen Zers need with regards to coaching?  This is especially true given the Gen Zers are just now entering the workforce.  Do coaches focus efforts on strengthening organizations with regards to creating dynamic cultures that represent the needs of all groups or put more focus on individuals within each generation?  How can coaches adapt to the evolving needs of Millennial and Gen Z clients while remaining true to the empirical researched practices that have been the practices of the coaching field?

 

These and other questions will be discussed by Global IOC faculty on April 28th at 10 AM EST https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85671563794?pwd=TmNGbVNEYXc5LzdVcDdnUzhwdWhCdz09.  Don’t miss what portends to be an exciting and illuminating conversation!

Unwinding the Negative Thinking Spiral

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colorful spiral

Unwinding the Negative Thinking Spiral

By Ursula Clidiere, Ph.D., CBC and Peggy Marshall, Ph.D., CMBC

 

Few of us need reminding that 2020 was a year that represented a massive call to action on so many fronts, but first and foremost, for the helping professions. Additionally, it was a double whammy for many as it challenged most helpers in their capability and capacity, mentally and physically, to help others.  It also presented us with our own needs for being helped, held, and supported.

For the Coaching profession, equally, it meant a period of stretching, learning, growth, further differentiation, research, and so much more. More importantly though, it probably made a few of us realize our own limitations in coaching others while trying to keep “all wheels on our own carriage”.

Why? Even though we were taking in mutual good advice, the good vibes, the tools, the reframing, … negativity at times creeps in like a snaky poison. Before stretching, we did learn more about our own failure than we probably ever wanted, before learning, it meant stumbling or falling. Nonetheless, as a profession we have also experienced a tremendous surge of peer support, learning opportunities (many free of charge!), networking, candor, and help. Yet, experiencing ourselves with a drop of anxiousness, and noticing what a drip of negativity can do to us, may have humbled us, and possibly broadened our own perspective, even filled us with more compassion.

Despite choosing the cloth of the Resilience Protective Factors discussed by Burger and Marshall  Nine Protective Factors of Resilience (globalioc.com) to drape around us, the negativity-poison can penetrate through. Sometimes in small trickly doses that shows itself as an indistinct gray shadow that gives the day a bit of a washed-out appearance. At other times, it might come as a more tidal affront that was difficult to ignore, kidnapping thought processes, and requiring repeated centering before pushing the ‘you are now connected with video’ button on Zoom. The shapes, shades and the duration of these sensations vary greatly but on bad days, it was a trip down the negativity spiral and back. So, what propels us into the negative thinking spiral and more importantly, how do we get back out?

Both Lisa Feldman Barrett in “Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain” and Rick Hanson in “Hardwiring Happiness” propose that our brains are wired for negativity and threat.  Barrett’s research about the evolution of the brain concludes that the action we are required to take is to determine if something we are about to encounter is a foe or friend.  Similarly, Hanson shares that we once existed in an “eat or be eaten” environment that remains present today.  The challenge becomes that this evaluation of friend or foe or eat or be eaten happens mostly unconsciously.  Additionally, the evaluation becomes cumulative, so the experiences and thoughts pack a greater punch as they connect with one another.

Given these factors, the first step in getting out of the negative thinking spiral is to acknowledge that we are in it.  Shawn Achor in “Before Happiness” shares that we are the creators of our own reality and advises that we choose the most valuable reality.  This means choosing the reality that takes our interpretation of thoughts, events, and circumstances into the best future we can create for ourselves.  Stop and think for a moment.  Upon awaking, what were your first thoughts this morning?  Were you looking forward to the day or were you still thinking about things that happened yesterday or anticipating something unpleasant happening today based upon your calendar?  Whatever you were thinking about possibly came with a story.

As coaches we often guide clients in their narrative or the story of what is happening.  Jim Loehr in “The Power of The Story” shares that stories are powerful ways that we express ourselves. “Your story is your life,” says Loehr.  As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about our work, our families and relationships, our health; about what we want and what we are capable of achieving. Yet, while our stories profoundly affect how others see us and we see ourselves, too few of us even recognize that we are telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them — and, in turn, transform our very destinies.

Emerging from our stories requires us to also evaluate self-talk that is created from the stories. Self-talk is a term that refers to the voices that chatter away in our heads.  Susan David in “Emotional Agility” refers to this chatter as “monkey mindedness” and guides the reader in challenging the thoughts that are not productive.  This constant chatter can be positive as well as negative.   When self-talk is positive, it can uplift you when things are not going your way, bolster your self-confidence to try new activities and deepen relationships. But negative self-talk, on the other hand, can interfere with performance, put a black cloud over relationships and erode your self-esteem.  Unwinding the negative thinking spiral challenges us to examine our self-talk and make changes accordingly.  The key here is that since it is our self-talk, we own it.  And if we own it, we can change it.

This article has provided just two ways to explore and possibly think differently about the negative thinking spiral along with ideas for changing it.  For more resources and tools on “Unwinding the Negative Thinking Spiral”  join, the Global IOC Wednesday Webinar on February 24 at 10 AM EST.  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85671563794?pwd=TmNGbVNEYXc5LzdVcDdnUzhwdWhCdz09